"When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food." --Erasmus

Monday, October 22, 2012

Review: Harold the King, by Helen Hollick

Pages:
690

Original
date of publication: 2000

My
edition: 2000 (Random House) (later published as I Am the Chosen King)

Why
I decided to read:

How
I acquired my copy: Amazon UK, November 2009

I’ve
had Harold the King on the TBR pile for a long, long time and had nearly
forgotten about it, but when I went on a trip, this seemed as though it would
be perfect reading for the plane ride. The novel tells the story of the Norman
Conquest from the point of view of Harold, the last truly English king.

The
novel is a sequel of sorts to The Hollow Crown. It opens in 1044 with the
crowing of Edward, but follow Harold’s story over the next 20 years. It covers
his relationship with Edyth Swan-neck; conflict with William; and eventual
crowning. Because the novel is from Harold’s perspective, it portrays him in a
bit of a rosy light; its William that gets short-changed. But I thought that
Hollick’s treatment of both characters seemed very realistic, given that the
events of this novel took place nearly a millennium ago. Because the reader
comes to love Harold and Edyth, you come to wish that they’ll have a happy
ending—even though with hindsight we know otherwise.

Harold
the King is well paced; the reader is never bored by endless love or battle
scenes, or any of the other flaws from which other historical novels suffer. This
version of the book certainly needed better editing; hopefully that was changed
with the Sourcebooks republication of it. But in all I really enjoyed this
novel about the Conquest. Additionally, there are Elizabeth Chadwick’s The Conquest; Sarah Bower’s The Needle in the Blood; or Valerie Anand’s
Gildenford, all novels that focus on the Conquest from varying points of view.